


Commemorative Photo?

by Kaleidoscopic_Kelpie



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Fluff, Kid!Yuuri, M/M, teenager!Victor, they meet when they're kids and it's cute, yakov is done with everything, yuuko is a quality friend
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-04-17
Updated: 2017-04-17
Packaged: 2018-10-20 06:06:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10656471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaleidoscopic_Kelpie/pseuds/Kaleidoscopic_Kelpie
Summary: The funny thing about winning is that without losing, winning isn't so great. This was something Victor Nikiforov, at the ripe age of 14, was beginning to realize more and more.Victor begins to question his future on the ice until he meets a shy fan.





	Commemorative Photo?

The funny thing about winning is that without losing, winning isn't so great.  
  
This was something Victor Nikiforov, at the ripe age of 14, was beginning to realize more and more. Sure, it was nice to win, but not as nice as it used to be. He used to be ecstatic at every gold medal awarded to him. Now, he smiled graciously, accepted his award and posed appropriately for the cameras before tossing it on the shelf with all the others.  
Victor had seriously started to wonder what he could possibly do in order to not win.

He considered throwing a competition. It wouldn't be all the difficult. All he'd have to do is flub a few jumps, maybe fake a fall. With his performance components, he's probably still make it to the podium with a silver. He could even try for bronze if he really sold it. But then he realized that Yakov would definitely know if he deliberately tried to lose and Victor really didn't want to have to deal with that lecture.

Next, he had considered maybe joining the senior level early. He was a year too young to start competing in the division, but maybe with his skill the ISU would let him join anyway. There had to be someone, anyone, in the senior division who could beat him. Some of them were much older than he was, so certainly their experience would be able to beat his talent. At least, that’s what he thought until the Russian Nationals. He had skated circles around competitors ten years his senior. So, there went Plan B and he only really had two plans, so now he was left with nothing.

It's was a stupid problem to have, really: winning too much.  
But it genuinely concerned him. If he felt like this now, how would he feel three years from now, ten years from now, thirteen years from now? If his career went on for as long as Yakov said it would, then this trend could go on for years, decades even. It was almost enough to make him want to quit, even if Victor knew deep down that he was much too cowardly for that. Until he found the solution (or the courage to call it quits), the only thing he could do was keep skating. 

The competition in Japan hadn’t been particularly challenging, which came as no surprise. After winning against skaters years older than him in the Russian Nationals, competing in the Junior International division was a cake walk. His routine for both the short program and the free program had been flawless and Yakov had been pleased. Victor wished he could partake in his coach’s pride but all he felt was detached. Before he knew it, he was standing at the top of the podium with the gold medal around his neck and an artificial smile on his face. 

As he and his coach were heading out of the venue, a few fans ran up to him and asked for autographs and pictures. Never one to turn away a fan, Victor happily obliged. This was much to the chagrin of Yakov, who stood off the the side with a sour look on his face.  
  
“Vitya, we don’t have time for this,” he growled gruffly.  
  
“Relax, Yakov,” Victor said, shooting him a pacifying smiling, “It’s just a few pictures. How long could it possibly take?” 

Apparently, the universe wanted Victor to eat those words because as soon as he had finished taking pictures and signing autographs for those fans, some more showed up with the same request.  
Then some more.  
Then some more.  
Soon enough a line was forming with what must have been at least forty people in it. Luckily, Victor had received his fair share of practice with handling crowds of fans, so he wasn’t daunted by the line. He maintained his polite demeanor, thanking them for their support, signing autographs and taking pictures. It seemed to be an endless barrage of signing and picture taking and soon enough Victor found himself to be slipping into a kind of automated state of trying to be mannerly. It wasn’t until there was a pause in the barrage that Victor woke up a bit from his state. 

Standing at the front of the line was a Japanese boy with bright red, round cheeks and thick glasses. He looked nervous and had his back turned as he frantically spoke to his friends, almost as if he was trying to convince them that they should leave. He clearly hadn’t realized that he was now at the very front of the line. As quietly as he could, Victor moved so that he was standing right behind the boy. Seemingly to have noticed the increased proximity at his back, the boy turned around then promptly squeaked in surprise at the sight of Victor standing so close to him. “ _Cute_ ,” Victor thought to himself with a smile. 

“Hello,” he greeted the boy with a charming smile.  
“H-Hello”, the boy returned in wobbling English.  
“Would you like a commemorative photo? Maybe an autograph?”, Victor asked.  
The boy’s mouth opened and closed a few times in frantic attempt to form the correct words before he turned toward the girl about his age that stood behind him for help. They spoke to each other in rapid Japanese before the girl spoke, “Yuuri’s English speaking isn’t very good. But he wanted to tell you that he thought your whole routine was incredible.”  
“That’s very kind of you, Yuuri,” he said, nodding gratefully at the boy. The shy boy’s cheeks seemed to get even redder as he averted his eyes and mumbled to the girl.  
“And that he hopes he can be as good of a skater as you one day.”  
Oh? That was surprising. This boy seemed far too shy and nervous to be a figure skater. How on Earth did he deal will people watching him while he performed if he could hardly handle Victor maintaining eye contact?  
  
“You skate?”, Victor asked curiously.  
The boy shrugged his shoulders not committally, keeping his gaze firmly on the ground.  
“Yes! We all do at the same skate club,” she explained cheerfully, gesturing to Yuuri and to another boy about their age who looked less than thrilled to be there.  
“Do you compete?”  
“I do and so does Takeshi. Yuuri hasn’t decided if he wants to yet. He doesn’t think he’s good enough.”  
“And what do you think?”  
“I think he should! He copies your routines all time and does them pretty well. It would be good for him.”  
Yuuri, upon hearing his friend discuss his skating without him, exclaimed in mortification.  
  
For some reason, that little tidbit of information made the smile on Victor face grow twice as large. Ignoring Yuuri’s outburst, Victor gasped delightedly and exclaimed, “You copy me? How flattering!”  
“You should watch him skate!” the girl suggested excitedly, “We have practice tomorrow. You could come and watch.”  
Immediately, Yuuri jumped forward between them, waving his arms frantically as he exclaimed in heavily accented English, “No no no no! It’s okay! You do not have to!”  
  
Much to his own surprise, Victor was actually considering it. Usually he would have simply laughed and politely declined. But…. this Yuuri kid intrigued him. He was unbearably shy and had the demeanor of a baby deer. Yet, he skated Victor’s programs. His programs which exuded confidence with every glide of a skate. Did Yuuri skate the program with a timid nature about him, bringing an entirely new meaning to the routine?... Or did he transform into a skater with complete command over the ice?  
Now that was something Victor wanted to see.  
  
“I’ll come,” he announces then gives Yuuri a teasing smile, “I have to make sure that you don’t skate my routines better than me.”  
Yuuri’s entire face erupted in a blush but before Victor could properly appreciate how absolutely adorable it was, Yakov was shouting in his ear.  
  
“Vitya! You can’t go running around with some kids! We have a flight back to Russia tomorrow!”, his coach exclaimed gruffly.  
“Our flight isn’t until evening. I have the entire day free,” Victor returned with a innocent smile before turning back toward Yuuri and his friends, “I’ll be there.”  
  
He could practically feel Yakov’s rage radiating from him but chose to ignore it in favor of getting Yuuri’s friend, whose name is Yuuko as it turns out, to write the address of their skate club and time of their practice on his hand. After exchanging goodbyes and Victor reaffirmed his promise of going to their practice tomorrow, Yuuri and his friends went on their way.  
And if Victor caught Yuuri looking back at him with his face red as borscht, well that was no one’s business. 

“You’re not going to that boy’s practice tomorrow.”  
“But Yakovvvvvvv, I have to! I promised!”  
“Stop whining, Vitya. You have to pack and get ready for the flight… Enough with the pouting!”  
“Alriiiiiight, Yakov. I won’t go.” 

That was a lie, he was definitely going.  
  
The next morning, Victor set his alarm early and snuck out of his hotel room. With his room directly adjacent to his coach’s, he would have to be extra quiet or risk being heard. With a backpack holding his skates, his wallet and his passport on his back, he tip-toed over to Yakov’s door then shoved a note under the door. There was no way that Victor would get back before Yakov woke up, so the best thing for him to do would be to tell him that he had gone out and he would be back in time for their flight. While this would not protect him from his coach’s fury, it may dull the intensity just a little. 

Getting to Hasetsu Station was the tricky part. His Japanese wasn’t great and it was nearly impossible to read the boards at the train station that told him which train to take. Luckily, after asking around, he was directed to the correct train and soon enough he was off toward Hasetsu Station.  
For some reason, Victor was nervous. Which was weird because he hardly ever got nervous. Why would he be nervous? They’re his fans. If anyone should be nervous, it should be them. Maybe it had to do with the fact that he was on his own in a foreign country where he hardly spoke the language going to see a boy he had met only once before and he had no idea how he would react to Victor showing up. Maybe… 

After about a two hour train ride and asking around again for directions, Victor found himself at Ice Castle Hasetsu. The walk from Hasestu Station to the ice rink hadn’t been far and the young figure skater had managed to there in only twenty minutes. The rink was nothing like any of the rinks he had skated at in Russia. It was tiny in comparison to the one he trained at in St. Petersburg. It seemed a little too cutesy to be housing serious athletes.  
Suddenly it hit Victor that the kids he had meet yesterday weren’t athletes. Well, not professional ones like he was. They skated for _fun _. Victor could hardly remember what that was like. How long had it been since he had skated just for fun? For a few quiet moments, Victor just stood staring up at the ice rink, remembering times that felt like they had occurred decades ago instead of just a few years ago.__

____

Shaking himself out of those thoughts, Victor checked the time and winced. 10:25 am. He was a little late but better late than never. Adjusting the backpack on his shoulder, Victor took a deep breath (definitely not because he was nervous or anything) and ascended the stairs.  
Walking into the ice rink, he was struck by how empty it was. There was only one person in the front office, an elderly woman who waved at him as he came in, and the changing room was completely devoid of people. He was beginning to wonder if maybe he had gotten pranked when he heard faint voices coming from behind a set of double doors.  
Cautiously pushing them open, he was relieved to see three figures skating leisurely on the ice. Yuuko was skating in lazy figure eights around the rink, just warming up. The stocky boy from yesterday was gliding about the ice as he stretched out his shoulders and arms. And in the center of the ice practicing spins was-  
“Yuuri!”, he shouted, waving his arms in greeting.  
Yuuri, startled by the shout, immediately lost his balance and ended up sprawled on the ice.  


****  


“You came!” Yuuko exclaimed, skating over toward Victor.  
“Of course I did! I promised,” he said, giving her a dazzling smile.  
“I thought your coach didn’t want you to come,” the stocky Japanese boy, Takeshi, said as he skated over to them with his arms crossed.  
“Yakov? No, no. He was fine with it. He’s surprisingly understanding,” the figure skater assured them. “ _When he’s not awake… _”, he added in his head.__  
Takeshi gave him an incredulous look but said nothing.  
Yuuri, having picked himself up off the ice, skated over toward them. “Hello,” he muttered, averting his eyes.  
“Hi Yuuri,” Victor says returning the greeting before smiling teasingly, “So, how about you show me that program?” 

Yuuri was nervous and Victor could tell all the way from where he was leaning against the barricade. He kept glancing over at Victor and no matter how many smiles Victor gave him, it didn’t seem to dissipate his nerves. Why was he so nervous? It wasn’t like Victor was expecting perfection or anything, he wasn’t Yakov.  
  
“Yuuri, are you ready?”, Yuuko asked, standing next to Victor and smiling encouragingly.  
  
The shy Japanese boy nods and gets into position. A starting position that Victor recognizes immediately. It was the free program that he performed at the Russian Nationals. The routine that had won him gold at the competition yesterday. It was a slow, elegant skating routine with delicate spins and perfectly choreographed step sequences. And Yuuri was performing it as well as Victor ever could have. His spins were solid and his step sequences, while not perfect, grabbed your attention. When it came to jumps, he certainly struggled. Even with having lowered the difficulty of the jumps, Yuuri flubbed the majority of them.  
But Victor couldn’t look away even if he wanted to.  
The entire world could come crashing down around him and he wouldn’t care about anything other than the skater in front of him. It made Victor wonder why Yuuri had so little faith in his skating. While he was by no means a professional athlete, there were certainly the beginnings of an incredible skating ability there.  
It made Victor want to push him.  
It made Victor want to help him.  
It made Victor want to see him on a podium with a gold medal around his neck. 

Once Yuuri finished the routine, Victor clapped as enthusiastically as he could. What else could he do after a performance like that? Yuuri looked a little startled, as if he had forgotten that he as being watched.  
  
“Bravo, Yuuri! Amazing! Why didn’t you tell me you could skate like that?”, Victor praised, an amazed smile on his face.  
Yuuri, blushing bright red from the compliments, shook his head, “No… it’s bad.”  
Victor’s brow furrowed. “What are you talking about? You were incredible. You have a lot of talent!”  
Yuuri shook his head more vigorously, “I fell.”  
“So what if you fell? That doesn’t matter, Yuuri! The rest of program was great!” Victor exclaimed. He had to admit that he was getting a little frustrated. Why was Yuuri so fixated on those failed jumps? The rest of the program was incredible for someone his age to do so well.  
  
The two of them stood in tense silence for a few moments, Victor looking slightly annoyed and Yuuri looking horribly disappointed. After too long of the two of them just standing in awkward silence, Yuuko intervened.  
  
“Victor, you’re here for a few hours right?” she asked.  
He nodded. “ _Or until Yakov finds me _”, he thought to himself.__  
“Takeshi and I have to start practice soon but Yuuri doesn’t start until the afternoon. How about you teach Yuuri some jumps in the meantime?”  
Yuuri seemed to pale and blush all in a matter of seconds and Victor was slightly concerned for his well being. It couldn’t possibly be healthy to turn that many shades that quickly. But sure, he could teach Yuuri some jumps. Maybe then he would finally realize what a good skater he was.  
“Yeah, okay,” he grinned, “Come on, Yuuri. We can practice over here.” 

Victor decided to focus on teaching Yuuri some low level jumps. Kids his age really shouldn’t be attempting jumps at all, but Victor was sure that Yuuri was more than capable of handling it. They’d start simple.  
“Okay, we’ll start with a single toe loop,” he said with Yuuri eagerly nodding after him.  
“It’s pretty simple, really. It’s one of the easiest jumps to master once you get it but it can be a little tricky at first. The trick is to go in using your left toe pick and land on your right foot. Here, I’ll show you what it looks like first.”  
Victor skated around the length of their half of the rink before effortlessly producing a single toe loop. “Just like that,” he said, stopping in front of Yuuri, “Ready to try it?”  
Despite looking slightly daunted by the task, the Japanese boy nodded enthusiastically.  
  
The first time Yuuri tried it he didn’t get enough momentum and just ended up doing a strange hop-spin movement.  
The second time Yuuri tried it he managed to do a tiny jump but his spin was almost nonexistent.  
The third time Yuuri tried it he managed to get a higher jump and a little more spin, but flubbed the landing and ended up falling on his side.  
  
While at first Victor had been concerned with Yuuri getting discouraged after messing up the jump so many times in a row, he quickly learned that was not the case. Every time Yuuri messed up the jump, he dusted himself off and tried again. Whenever he fell, Victor would give him adjustments or give him pointers, which Yuuri eagerly accepted.  
Watching Yuuri listen to his suggestions and implement them into his practice made something stir in Victor’s chest. An excitement about skating that he had been missing for quite some time. Yuuri’s determination and passion for skating made him want to care as much as he as used to. It made him want to care as much as Yuuri did. 

Then, after about the thirtieth time, Yuuri landed the toe loop. It was perfect. His entry was flawless, he spun the correct way and his landing was secure and strong. There was no over rotation, no flaw in his footwork, no sprawling across the ice.  
Victor’s heart nearly exploded in joy.  
  
“Yuuri!”, he exclaimed, embracing the boy in his excitement, “Yuuri, you did it!”  
While Yuuri seemed a little uncomfortable at the physical affection, his dazzling grin showed his pride. Victor, overcome with his excitement, clutched the smaller boy closer and spun in glee, prompting both boys to giggle as they spun about the ice together. As they came a halt and their laughter petered off, the two boys just stood for a few moments, smiling at each other.  
  
“Thank you, Victor,” Yuuri said, eyes shining with pride.  
And it was in that moment that a realization hit Victor.  
He would care about figure skating more if it was Yuuri he was skating with. Suddenly, all he wanted to do was skate. He’d skate from morning till night if Yuuri was there to skate with him.  
With a soft smile, Victor inclined his head toward the younger boy. “I think I should be thanking you.”  
Yuuri’s brows furrowed in confusion but before he could say anything- 

“VITYA!”  
  
The enraged shout caused such a shock that Yuuri nearly lost his balance from his startle. Once Victor was sure that Yuuri wouldn’t fall over, he turned to see his coach rinkside, with his face redder than Victor had ever seen it.  
“Ah, Yakov. I see you came to get me,” he said, an easy smile on his face.  
“You deliberately disobeyed me after I told you that you weren’t going!”, his coach yelled.  
“You should have expected this from me, coach. How long have we known each other?”  
“You made me run all over the city to look for you!”  
“I left a note.”  
“You didn’t tell me where you were going in the note!”  
“Oh… Well, you figured it out eventually. You’d make a good detective, Yakov!”  
“Get off the ice now, Vitya! You better hope we make this flight back to Russia or your family will have to hire a detective to figure out what happened to you!”  
“Come on, Yakov. Just a few more minutes?”  
“NOW!” 

After getting off the ice and changing his shoes, Victor stood at the entrance to the ice rink and said his goodbyes.  
Takeshi nodded at him and offered him a wave, which Victor considered a success in winning the grouchy guy over. Yuuko had hugged him and wished him a safe flight. The figure skater smiled at her and promised that he would come back as soon as he could, a promise which his coach prickled at.  
And then there was Yuuri. Yuuri, who had skated his gold-winning program at an age when Victor was still learning basics. Yuuri, who had given him his love for skating back. What could he possibly say to encapsulate just how grateful he was? Before Victor could even open his mouth to attempt to thank him, Yuuri bowed respectfully to him.  
  
“Thank you, Victor. For teaching me. I had fun,” he said.  
“I had fun too. You did great today. If you keep practicing that toe loop, you’ll be able to do a double or triple in no time…. And Yuuri?”  
At the sound of his name, Yuuri looked up at Victor, curious.  
The figure skater smiled as he grabbed Yuuri’s shoulders, “I look forward to skating on the same ice as you one day.”  
The awed look on his face was almost too much to handle and before he could stop himself, Victor pressed a kiss onto the Japanese boy’s cheek.  
“Dasvidaniya, Yuuri,” he muttered before Yakov was literally dragging him out the front doors of the ice rink.  
While being dragged out of an ice rink by your coach isn’t the best way to conclude a farewell, Victor considered it worth it to see the spectacular blush on Yuuri’s face.

As Victor and his coach walked back to the train station, they walked in relative silence.  
“Yakov?”, Victor asked, breaking the silence.  
His coach grunted in acknowledgement, still brimming with anger from Victor’s earlier stunt.  
“How soon can we go to the ice rink to practice after we get back to St. Petersburg?”  
  
Caught slightly off guard by the question, Yakov turned to look at Victor with a raised eyebrow.  
“The day after we land at the earliest… Why?”  
“I just want to practice as soon as possible.”  
“You hate practice, what makes you suddenly want to go? Did you hit your head on the ice?”  
Victor simply shrugged, “There are somethings I need to work on. They need to be perfect if I want to stay competitive.”  
“Vitya, you’re the top in your league. Who would you be competing against?”  
“No one yet.” Victor then turned toward his coach with a grin on his face, “But you never know what kind of talent will pop up in the next few years.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! This is the first fic I have ever posted. 
> 
> All kudos and comments are greatly appreciated! 
> 
> Thanks again!


End file.
